Entities

Editions

Bon appétit!

Permanent event at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada

24 July 2018

Bon appétit! Courtesy of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

In the words of the famous French gastronome Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), “the pleasures of the table are for every man, of every land, and no matter of what place in history or society.” With that in mind, the exhibition Bon appétit! brings together the accoutrements of welcoming people to a table — industrial and artisanal tools and equipment used for preparing, cooking, and keeping food —that are always attractive, and that celebrate the culinary arts.

The elements addressed are varied: from grocery baskets, kitchen utensils and tableware to the raw and the cooked, water and wine… even, in keeping with sustainable food practices, an edible plate! Some designers combine beauty with utility, form and function, while others redefine the acts of eating and drinking through experimentation or creative projects.

“Fashioned by hand by woodworkers or produced within small craft-based companies, a number of these pieces appeal to the sense of touch: wooden tools, fine china, articles made from textiles or recycled paper, and glass or ceramic cookware. The exhibition pays tribute to several generations of designers, from established masters to those now coming to the fore, who, thanks to their expertise, give meaning to such utilitarian objects and promote a better way of living,” says Diane Charbonneau, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts, and Photography, MMFA.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) was one of the first museums in North America to build up an encyclopedic collection worthy of the name. It now numbers over 41,000 works from Antiquity to today, making it unique in Canada.